Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Hello everyone,

I had a great day on Saturday. I finally bagged a Gobbler after a 8 year wait. I will tell you the story, so bear with me.

Charlie and I started before sunup by getting the truck threw the gate and getting into the woods. It started as a great day of pleasures for the senses. Just at day break we started trying to locate a bird as usual with a owl hoot. Now for those that do not know Charlie or have not heard someone that owl calls with his throat, it is impressive and always has been since I started hunting with Charlie. Anyway, his owl call is unbelievable in how real it sounds. Well, the first time he hooted, 2 owls called back to him very close to us. Then one of them came threw the trees and flew just over our heads. He hooted again and again an owl answered from somewhere over us. We finally found him straight up from us about 30 feet in the top of a pine tree. He was so beautiful sitting up there. So Charlie got the video camera out and we played with him for a few minutes. He would call to it and he would look down at us as if to say "where is that owl, let her go". IT was some site.

The first crow finally called at 6:30. after a few crows calling, we heard the first Turkey of the day. It was a long way off and over a couple ridges. Charlie had been in the area a few days before and said that he knew that there was a bird in this valley we were overlooking somewhere. We walked a little ways down the road and still only heard the same bird. We continued down the road and down into the valley more and more. The crows were yelling, the wood pickers were squealing and there were more sound in the woods than I have ever heard. We went threw a green field and over to a firebreak road to see what we could hear. As we did this, two wood picker were on a hollow tree that we passed and it sounded like a big bass drum as they hammer on it and courted each other. We heard a turkey that sounded like it was a few hundred yard to our right, so we decide too sit down on the fire break road and see if we could call it onto the road and get it to come to us. I headed down the road about 30 yards and found a good oak to sit against and Charlie went a little piece up the road after sitting out a hen decoy. After a few minutes, Charlie did a fly down of a hen call and started a few hen clucks here and there. Just after, I heard a bird fly down from a tree to my right and hit the ground. A bird a long way off gobbled at then the bird on the other side of the hill gobbled again. This happened several times before another bird gobbled off to my right about 300 yards. I could hear a hen or Jake bird clucking to my right, but that one gobble sent a thrill down the spine. We continued to do a little calling and the bird on the other side kept hard gobbling, but he was just pacing on the other side of the hill and not moving much. He was not going to come around or over the hill to us. Just as Charlie stood up and I had gotten up, Charlie walked down to me. On his way to me, the longest loudest gobble I had ever heard happened just over the hill. I had to have lasted 10-15 seconds. Charlie stooped and listened as I was shaking from the sound. Charlie made it to just as as another long , loud call happened again. The only thing we could come up with is that the bird that gobbled to my right earlier and the other bird had gotten together and were gobbling together. We decided that the bird that we were hearing was off the boundary of the property and it was not going to come to us. We started waling the fire break boundary road to see if we could find another gobbling bird on into the property. We crossed a creek and walked on up a step hill about 300-400 yards. We could hear a bird along way off but the bird on the other side of the hill was silent. Charlie gave a hen call with his mouth call with no response. He made the comment that that bird does m=not like the mouth call cause he had yet to answer to it. As we continued to walk the hill, Charlie had gotten box call out and hit it a couple times when a bird gobbled right behind us. We turned around and made the comment that that had to be that bird across the hill now in top of the hill. He called again and it was even closer that time when it gobbed. Charlie said "he thinks we are leaving" (us being the hens as we were calling). He told me to sit quickly on the road and watch to see if it would come up the road, he started to walk slowly up the hill calling lightly as he walked away. I got set down and ready when I heard the bird flop across the creek and I could hear it walking as if it were next to me. I had the gun a t ready pointing down into the woods were I could hear the walking expecting to see his white head at any point. I listened while he went right by me to the point I had no shot anymore if I could have scene him. I was trying to figure out how to get turned around and communicate with Charlie to look over the hill top, cause I thought it was going around the hill . I had drooped my gun to my lap and was going to roll out into the road on my belly so that I could point up the road to Charlie. As i was doing this, Charlie shot. I looked up the hill to see Charlie with gun extended and swinging the gun over my position. I looked up to see a gobbler fly into the tree I was sitting in and land. I could not get my gun around to him and he pitched out of the tree when I got the shot on him. I'm thinking the whole time that Charlie had shot the bird and it flew up and I just knocked him down for Charlie. The bird fell to the ground just a few yards in front of me. I jumped up to grab it. As I did, I saw Charlie running down the other side of the hill like he was hunting the bird. I was yelling at him that I had the bird right here, but he kept running. I made it to the bird I shot and he was sitting there like nothing was wrong looking at me. I have always saw on video and when I had scene others shoot a bird, the turkey would flop around until you got to them and held them down. So when this one was sitting there, like on a nest, it was weird. I kept telling Charlie that I had the bird but he was way down the hill side around from me. As I saw him lift up a Turkey, I realized that I had shot a second bird and my first. I debated for a second how to kill the bird. Do I shot it again, do I grab it and risk it flogging me or what. So i decide that if I could get to it I would hit it with my gun and try to hit its neck, which is what I did. It knocked him out and I got my foot on its neck and was able to grab its feet when it rolled over. i was so happy, I can not tell you. I made my way back out of the woods to the road to find Charlie holding a bigger bird and I holding a bird. I could not believe it, a 2 in 1 deal. How great is that.

Charlie started telling me that he had his gun on his should standing on the top of the hill when he had decided to pull his gun down and was looking for a place to sit down. He said he had the gun about half way off his shoulder when the turkeys head popped up over the dirt clump in front of him at 10 yards away and then the second. He got the gun around and hit the first bird that he said was in half strut. The the other one flew off and he was trying to keep up with it ad watch were his bird went when I fired and he saw it falling out of the sky. We rejoiced for a few and then hung out shells with a feather in them were each of us were when we fired. We then headed out to the green fiend down the hill to get some pictures in the sun of the birds. That was the best walkout of the woods ever for me.

To see all the pictures click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/everyoneknowsjeff/TurkeyHunting#

We went back to his home and got the meat out of the birds and got the tail and beard off them for mounts. I went ahead and took the head off mine to freeze so that I can send it to be bronzed. I headed home and washed the meat and vacuum sealed it and the head up and put in the freezer. I guess i should have told Amy that there was a head in the freezer, but as I was getting cleaned up, I heard her open the freezer and yell. It was quite funny for me.

I caught a small nap before I had to leave for work. That is were I am now, ATCC. We have had a bust night and it has flown by. Another hour and I will be headed home for a day of rest. I plan on not moving and sleeping as much as possible. Next week brings Jury duty for me. I hope to get dismissed and then I can hunt a couple days due to me already taking off a shift at the ambulance and ATCC for jury duty. I guess we will see. I know I need to get a hair cut and check on what ALFA has done with my car insurance with this new system they have, But other than that, I am going to try and let things just happen as they will. I will let you know later in the week.

C'ya later,

JEFF

A giger counter could have found me.

Hello Everyone,

This week has been a full week of all sorts of adventures for me. It started with another busy shift at RPS in St Clair County. Let me tell you, that is a busy county on an ambulance. I got off Monday and ran home to get cleaned up to head to UAB for a Dr appointment. It was my first Endocrinologist appointment. I liked him. HE took me off the hormones and is going to start over with my evaluation. He thinks that I am sleep deprived and not having hormone problems. IMAGINE THAT, SLEEP DEPRIVED. Anyway, I got to do all the hormone testing again. Then Tuesday, I got up at 4 and headed to work for a day shift. When I got there, I found that the schedule had changed and I was scheduled for a night shift. So back home I went and boy did I sleep the day away. Then back to TCC for the night. It was a slow night and I enjoyed working by myself.
Wednesday morning brought on the fun. I got off at 7:30 a and headed to wal-mart to get some shorts and some walking shoes. You see, I had to have a stress test and Amy did not think it a good idea for me to wear my work boots to do the test in. I did not own a pair of non work shoes or boots. Well, I got to the hospital at about 10 am and checked in for the test that all three doctors had scheduled. I knew I was in for along day when the clerk had to register me twice cause all the test would not fit on one registration. So the fun began. Back to have 3 tubes of blood drawn. Then to another room to be stuck again for an IV. When the guy broke out the metal tube and unscrewed the top is when I got worried. He injected some sort of nuclear dye into me and immediately put me in a big machine that started taking x-rays of my heart. So Ive been shot up with radiation and now am being submitted to more radiation to see the first. Then into the stress test room where a nurse friend (Leslie) was awaiting me. She is rather good looking and I have thought so for years. So I really did not want to pull my shirt up and expose my overweight body to her, but oh well. Then she has to shave my chest. Yes, shaved it. Then put all the wires on me and put me on the tread mill. I did good with no problems. Then during the last minute of that, they shot me with more nuclear crap and then back to the machine to get more radiation. I felt like I was glowing by this time (and I don't mean with embarrassment). After that, another lady was awaiting me to take about 30 minutes of regular X-rays of everything from my chest up. And the I was taken to the MRI room. I was told that I would be in it about an hour and a half for more radiation. Now I am not a small guy, so I would have liked to see what it looked like for me to be squeezed into this tube. I know It was tight from where I was laying. The only problem is that I fell asleep and they had to redo one of the test because I jumped when I awoke in the machine. The lady ended up singing to me to keep me awake in there. During the MRI is where I was glad I had followed Amy's advice and gotten some shoes. I would have been stuck to the machine with my steel toed boots, and that would have been funny to see. A fat guy in a tube with his feet planted to the outside of the machine. Imagine that if you dare. So by 2:30 that afternoon, I figure that they could have tracked me with a Geiger counter.

Hunter, Charlie and I did some shooting on the firing range late that afternoon getting ready for Turkey season . Hunter had wanted to shoot for weeks. Its a shame that we have a firing range in the back yard and it takes weeks for us to get out there and use it. That Hunter is a natural shot like I was at a younger age. He was dead on with his shotgun and then fired a box of 270 rounds at 100 yards with about a 90% hit rate. I could not hit the broad side of the barn, but I blame it on the radiation poisoning from the day.

I actually slept in on Thursday then got out and just messed around for the afternoon. I got the weather center installed in the Tv studio at the school for Hunter. I helped dad clean some limbs up at the Sycamore parsonage and had dinner with the family before relaxing and watching TV. A rare day for me.

Friday was back to TCC and then Saturday a busy RPS day. And now to today. It is Sunday and I am here at TCC for a 10:30 am - 10:30 pm shift. I am on for the next 3 night shift from here. So the first part of the week is busy.

I hope to get a day of Turkey hunting in toward the end of the week and Hunter and I are going to Gadsden Music to goof off an do some pricing of a mixer board and microphones for the TV studio. Who knows what else we will get into. The back to TCC on Saturday night.

I will get back to you sometime next week or follow me on facebook daily.

C'ya

JEFF

Little Guys first snow and Hunter's second

Hello everyone,

We had a decent snowfall here in the south on Sunday morning. I was at ATCC when it started and by the time to go home, we had a couple inches on the ground. It snowed hard all the way home and was a pretty site on the farm when I pulled in. The little car did good in the snow. I got home and was so tired from my 4 night straight at ATCC that I went to bed and did not awaken till 7:30 that night and it was mostly gone. Hunter got out and walked around in the woods to look around. I have to remind myself that this is only Hunter's 2nd snow event of his life. He seems to enjoy them. I put a few pictures on the Picasa link under weather pictures if you care to see. Here is one of my favorites I took.Anyway, this week has not started off well for me. We had a awful shift on the ambulance Monday with little to no sleep. The had to be in a paperwork class during the day Tuesday. Got back to home with just enough time to shower and get to the school for a meeting with a teacher and the principal. I don't feel like it went far enough, but did get some feelings out in the open. I did learn that for all the work done, it really does not matter. I kinda bummed out about it. Then we had Band Boosters, I guess it went OK but it made me look like a fool to have talked about how unhappy other parents were just an hour before and then none of them to even say a word about being unhappy also. I do not know what I want to do, but I sure am going to cut back my efforts except for what Hunter needs. Like I said, I am bummed out today from lack of sleep due to laying up all night thinking about the situation.

Maybe the rest of the week will shape up and be OK. I work today at ATCC and then tomorrow on the ambulance. I hope to get to go fishing Friday with Kelly and Charlie. It would be good to do something that does not require thinking hard for a few hours.

For those of you who knew I was going to the cardiologist, I got good news so far that he does not think there is a problem with my heart but rather a pinched nerve in my neck causing my unique pain when I sneeze. I go for a few test to make sure during the month and will let you know. I also go to the endocrinologist next week for the first time to see about helping regulate the hormone imbalance we found during my physical. Get this, they think that them being out of wake is why I am grouchy. I keep telling them that I am grouchy cause I am tired and work to much, but they say that I will feel a lot better when they get me fixed. We'll see!!

I hope all of you have a good week and I will talk to you later.

JEFF